Some college students in Maine are among a new wave of loggers, who are trading in axes for high tech machines (and extra training). Focusing on the basics, the Pacific Forestry Centre is promoting two conferences that speak to the plant diseases that threaten Canada’s timber crops.
Other forestry headlines include:
- Why does this famous protector of trees now want to cut some down? (Oregon)
- Federal forest act prompts burning debate in Washington (Arkansas)
- Battle over two owl species takes flight at 9th Circuit (Oregon)
- Scorched earth of Portugal fires may hold seeds of a renewal
A new report on the lessons learned from Lumber IV (by Elaine Feldman, Canada’s former lead negotiator) speaks to what really matters in the NAFTA negotiations. In the Journal of Science, the world’s longest-running study on forest soils and climate change says soil warming stimulates periods of abundant carbon release. And the US Endowment for Forestry and Communities released a report that calls for changes in the way forest and forest products research is addressed.
Finally, the Forest Stewardship Council kicks off its triennial global FSC General Assembly in Vancouver, BC this weekend, the organization’s highest decision-making forum.
Happy Thanksgiving (weekend) to our Canadian readers. The frogs will be back on Tuesday with full bellies and the weekend headlines.
–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor